Automatic counterfort retaining wall desing by simulated annealing and extreme value estimation

Abstract

This paper focusses on the automatic design and cost minimization of reinforced concrete buttress earth-retaining walls using a Simulated Annealing (SA) algorithm and the Extreme Value Theory (EVT). The study involves a counterfort earth-retaining wall which measures 11.00 m in height, which includes 32 discrete design variables. An objective methodology based on the EVT and the bootstrap technique is used to determine the number of experimental tests required to provide a solution with user-defined accuracy as compared to a global optimum solution. Analysis of the results indicate that the local optima found by SA fits a three-parameter Weibull distribution so the estimated location parameter can be used as an estimation of the global minimum cost solution. The difference between the minimum value obtained after 1400 runs and the extreme value estimated was €16.11, a difference of just 0.62% compared to the theoretical minimum value.